Football: Bears get big commitment from 4-star CB

Cal picked up an oral commitment Tuesday night from cornerback Jaleel Wadood, a four-star prospect from St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, according to Scout.com.

The 5-foot-11, 160-pounder, rated by Scout as the No. 19 corner in the country, decommitted from Arizona State last month and chose the Bears over a long list of Pac-12 schools, including USC and UCLA.

Earlier, Cal came up short on two recruiting targets: four-star WR Erik Brown of Fontana picked Washington, and De La Salle defensive end Sumner Houston chose Oregon State.

Raf – in the earlier post this week you said that this class doesn’t impress. Now we get a higher rated recruit, and you come out with another negative response. BlakeStreet nailed it – try some optimism.

Let’s see….a four star, 19th rated CB in country, doesn’t choose sc or ucla or arizona st. and chooses CAL….aaahhhh…what a way to start my holiday week!!!!!! Love it!!!!! Cheers to all the Bear Brethren!!!!

I was walking after my lunch break the other day and I went up to Tightwad Hill to see the epic view. Inside the stadium was the funniest thing. It was a little kids’ football camp, and I mean *little*. Some of these guys were like 4, big shiny helmets flopping all over their little bean heads. Anyway, a group of Cal RBs, #15 Bigelow included, were putting these kids through some RB drills. They’d hand the ball off and the kid would sprint, jump over some obstacles, then try to dive into the padded endzone. It was Bigelow and a couple others’ jobs to stop them on their way by hitting them with BIG foam pads. They’d throw these BIG pads at these little kids knocking them down as they dove etc. It was hilarious from up on the hill and needless to say all the players were cracking up big time. I’d prefer to watch 18-23 year olds “flying around out there” in the very beautifully renovated CMS but in July you take what you can get. Oh, did I mention the view? …

BlueNGold: Most 4 Star players can receive offers from almost ANY program in the country. Jaleel Wadood had offers from, among other programs, Oregon, USC, UCLA, ASU, Colorado, Boise State, Nebraska, Oregon State, and Utah. Wadood chose our Cal over these programs. Wadood’s commitment appears to be the real deal. Be HAPPY for Cal.

Mark my words, our team will perform well this year and get better over the next few years. Get ready for some great times at Memorial Stadium.

Look. I like the odds of Wadood sticking with this commitment, but he’s already flipped once, so it isn’t like it would surprise if he did again. “Real deal” and “solid” don’t really apply objectively. This doesn’t mean he hasn’t made up his mind and is actually 100% Cal. Just that WE can’t possibly pretend to know what’s up in the kids head.

That said, this is a big positive for the recruiting efforts, especially in that he’s a defensive player. Sonny’s offense is a selling point. To lure a second tier recruit (don’t go nuts on 2nd tier – there are only like 20 kids in the country that are 1st tier), a defensive player, means Sonny’s charisma can translate to both sides of the ball in a living room.

Boalt- my comment was really directed to Rollonubears. He posted to another thread a few days ago about guys giving oral commitments only to reneg when a more attractive offer came along. Given all the enthusiasm being shown for Wadood, I just wondered if Rollon had the same concerns about him backing out down the road, and that is why I asked the question that I did.

If Jaleel does read Bear Talk I am confident he has the intelligence to figure out what was meant.

Anyone notice that Cal QB commit Luke Rebenzer recently made the Elite 11, which will now bring a fourth Elite 11 QB to our roster next year (Hinder, Kline, Goff, Rebenzer). He finished at #10. One of these days I’m going to spend an hour and see how Cal ranks in terms of getting the most Elite 11 QB’s. Could be #1 but in terms of overall effectiveness of their Elite 11 QB’s, Cal may be at the very bottom. Hopefully, things will change with Dyke’s supercharged offensive scheme.